ESXi virtualizes ahead of the pack
January 12, 2018
ESXi virtualizes ahead of the pack
Score 9 out of 10
Vetted Review
Verified User
Overall Satisfaction with VMware ESXi
It is used across the entire organization and solves providing temporary servers, right-sizing the servers (physical servers are more limited in their RAM and CPU configurations. A single physical server can host dozens of virtual server VMs, all with different operating systems installed. It also abstracts the [hardware] from the server which enables a VM to be exported to a different building or location or even a different company. Virtualizing large servers can reduce cooling, power, ups, cables, physical space and racks, noise, support. Many processes like antivirus, backups, boot ups, upgrades can be more centralized.
- Support of so many operating systems including various Windows and Unix, including many variations.
- API PowerCLI scripting can help automated enterprise tasks to scale
- Virtualizing physical servers provides much higher ROI compared to non-virtualized servers running a single OS
- ESXi loads in ram on the server & it's small so the hypervisor uses very little of the hosts resources
- The client has been the most common complaint about ESXi. It took 4 years to complete the web client and as soon as it was finished, they announced it would be replaced by the HTML client. frustratingly, the html client is incomplete which puts users in the same predicament as the previous 4 years.
- Converter could be better integrated into ESXi (client) which would make creating VMs (p2v) much easier and would also prompt VMware to continue to update and improve converter (which has not had many improvements or updates since being released.
- Maintenance mode should be much quicker when ESXi is used with vSAN.
- A single server can run dozens of VMs & those VMs can be a myriad operating systems.
- Virtualizing servers using ESXi reduces power usage, cooling, cabling, footprint, weight, physical support, antivirus protection.
- ESXi requires staffing unlike AWS.
- OpenStack
Microsoft lacks so many advanced management features compared to ESXi. OpenStack requires significantly more expertise compared to ESXi. ESXi also has by far the most third-party vendor support which provides a vast amount of choices for value-added features not included in ESXi in addition to interfacing with other solutions.